magic realism

or magical realism

noun

1. a style of painting and literature in which fantastic or imaginary and often unsettling images or events are depicted in a sharply detailed, realistic manner.

magic realism

noun

1. a style of painting or writing that depicts images or scenes of surreal fantasy in a representational or realistic way

Derived Forms

• magic realist, noun

Other Words From

• magic realist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of magic realism¹

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

“Tigers Are Not Afraid” was a horror film shot through with magic realism, and both those elements find a home in “Night Country.”

From Los Angeles Times

Nancy Savoca’s 1993 film “Household Saints,” a warmhearted fable spiced with magic realism and zesty performances, may be the most endearing of multigenerational Italian American family sagas and is likely the most mystical.

From New York Times

That grounding also allows for some well-integrated magic realism, and of the introduction of a spirit world that lives close by and looks and sounds and acts a lot like ours.

From Los Angeles Times

His 1979 work The Book of Laughter and Forgetting spanned seven narratives and containing elements of the magic realism genre, while in 1988 he wrote one of his best novels, Immortality.

From BBC

In Allen’s fashioning, Black experience is never subject to conventional parameters of time and space, and his magic realism, instead of being performatively exuberant or purposefully provocative, is plainly unsettling and disturbing.

From New York Times